Midnight launch of Metal Gear Solid Rising: Revengeance

 

 

On Thursday 21^st February, the legendary Hideo Kojima – creator of the Metal Gear Solid series (and other notable works) attended a launch for his latest masterpiece, Metal Gear Solid Rising: Revengence. He was joined by Yoji Shinkawa, who is responsible for the amazing artwork for the game.

I had never been to a midnight launch before Thursday night, I suppose I’ve never wanted a game that badly before. But when I found out that the man himself Hideo Kojima would be there, just an hour’s drive from me – nothing was going to stop me!

After having arrived at around 9.30pm I spent about 15mins trying to find the GAME store itself before I finally arrived. I had read on twitter that only the first 200 would get to meet Hideo, so at this point I was totally freaking out and praying that I would get to meet him. When I got to the till and was presented with ticket number 185, I did have a small nerdgasm!

I then joined the queue outside, in the cold. None of us had any idea, or had any kind of warning that we would have to stand outside. It was clear from how some were dressed that not many were prepared for such adverse conditions. After 20 minutes I couldn’t feel my hands, my feet, or anything else for that matter.

I asked the security guard if we were going to have to stand outside until midnight, but he said only until 10.00pm (it was already 9.50pm). He also said that we could go and grab some food then come back, which I gladly obliged.

When we finally got to go inside I was so far at the back of the queue that I couldn’t see or hear the Q&A session going on. It seemed totally disorganised to me, there was a large tv screen above the queue which they could have easily used to stream from so that the others at the back could see what was going on. But all we could do was stand and wait.

Eventually at midnight the queue started moving at a minimal pace. But an employee at GAME came to deliver us some bad news, Hideo Kojima changed his mind about signing autographs and will only be taking pictures. Not only that but all pictures can only be taken by the cameraman inside and not by yourself.

Since we had all been waiting so long (and in the cold for most of it) this left many fans disappointed. Some people had brought other Metal Gear games, posters and such to be signed by Hideo Kojima – so this news really damped the mood. I told myself that I wasn’t going to let this get me down, to be honest just meeting him was enough for me.

When we were finally allowed inside the store I couldn’t believe that he was standing less than 2 meters away from me. I caught Yoji Shinkawa’s eye so I waved at him, and he smiled and waved back at me. I got to the front of the till, paid for my game then joined the queue to take a picture with them. Hideo handed me the game, and Yoji gave me the specially designed steelcase.

I finally got to meet my gaming hero, and this is something I never thought would happen. I hope that Hideo visits the UK again in the future, it would be nice to get my game signed next time. If you want the chance to meet him, I suggest following him on twitter @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN.